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on Development |
| By: | Parisa Pakrooh (Department of Economics, Management and Statistics-DEMS, University of Milano-Bicocca); Fabio Gaetano Santeramo (Department of Sciences of Agriculture, Food Natural Resources and Engineering, University of Foggia); Giuseppe Maggio (Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo) |
| Abstract: | Weather shocks increasingly threaten agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the negative effects of drought on production have been documented in numerous studies, the behavioral dimension of adaptation, particularly how households perceive drought and what shapes these perceptions, remains less explored. The study focuses on Uganda to distinguish between self-reported drought (subjective) and data-driven drought (objective) and how their divergence is associated with agricultural outcomes. The study relies on four waves of household surveys (UNPS for 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, and 2013/14) with historical re-analysis data on temperature and precipitation from 1981 to 2015. Log-linear and logit models are applied to estimate the association between drought, perception, and household characteristics on production and drought perception formation. Objective drought is negatively associated with total value of production. Subjective drought perception has a positive association with production. Self-reported drought captures differences in households’ behavioral responses or preparedness, rather than observed weather shocks. Households that underestimate drought conditions tend to exhibit lower production outcomes, while households reporting a drought when this is not observed in objective data tend to maintain their production levels. Access to the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), technology adoption, higher education levels, farming experience, and greater off-farm assets are positively associated with higher production. Conversely, lower production is associated with a higher share of female labor, female-headed households, and poverty. The results highlight the importance of distinguishing between perceived and observed drought and improving households’ access to timely information to plan adaptation strategies. |
| Keywords: | Drought perception, objective drought, agricultural production, Uganda, early warning systems, climate change adaptation |
| JEL: | Q01 Q12 Q16 Q54 O13 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2026.19 |
| By: | Sana Khan; Lucia Ferrone |
| Abstract: | The concept of women's empowerment has received a lot of recognition in the past few years and is considered an important factor in determining the nutritional outcomes of children. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of women's empowerment on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. This study examined the causal relationship between women’s empowerment and IYCF outcomes by utilizing the most recent data from the Demographic and Health Survey (2022) conducted in Nepal. Women's empowerment is measured using a composite index that encompasses five domains: information access, healthcare access, asset ownership, decision-making autonomy, and attitude towards domestic abuse. Each of these dimensions was also analyzed separately to assess its impact on IYCF practices. The empirical strategy encompassed the Lewbel two-stage least squares method (I+E) as the primary methodology. The findings indicate a positive relationship between the overall women’s empowerment score and minimum meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, and iron-rich foods. Specifically, the information access dimension has a positive relationship with the minimum acceptable diet and iron-rich foods. The decision making autonomy dimension is positively related to the minimum meal frequency, vitamin-A rich foods, and iron-rich foods. The attitude toward domestic violence dimension indicates a positive relationship with minimum dietary diversity, minimum acceptable diet, and vitamin-A rich foods. Further analysis also suggests that women's empowerment has an indirect effect on IYCF practices, specifically through mother’s education. It has a substantial positive impact on minimal dietary diversity, a minimum acceptable diet, and vitamin A rich foods. Interventions aimed at enhancing IYCF practices in Nepal should prioritize women's empowerment strategies. In particular, focus on key areas such as decision-making autonomy, access to information, and shaping women's attitudes towards domestic violence. Likewise, it is also necessary to comprehend the indirect impact of a mother's education on these child nutritional outcomes. |
| Keywords: | infant and child feeding practices, women’s empowerment, Lewbel estimation method, mediation analysis |
| JEL: | I15 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2026_04.rdf |
| By: | Dang, Hai-Anh H.; Kilic, Talip; Abanokova, Kseniya |
| Abstract: | Can imputed poverty estimates be reliably disaggregated by population groups, especially when the interest is monitoring poverty levels for smaller, vulnerable groups that may not be represented as well in large-scale household surveys? The study tackles this question through a comprehensive literature review and empirical analysis that leverages 18 household surveys across four different low- and middle-income countries. The results suggest that the imputation accuracy widely varies by population group, with differences being as high as 10 percentage points in pairwise comparisons of groups. The imputation accuracy for the population groups of interest increases, on average, by 1.3 percentage points in response to increasing the sample size by 1, 000 observations for the target survey that is used for sourcing the predictors for the imputation model. The results are robust to extensive sensitivity analyses and also suggest that incorporating geospatial predictors into the imputation model can help increase imputation accuracy. The discussion provides useful inputs for future survey design. |
| Keywords: | consumption, poverty, survey-to-survey imputation, household surveys, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Vietnam |
| JEL: | C15 I32 O15 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1780 |
| By: | Malesky, Edmund J.; Mattsson, Martin; Vu, Khoa; Zhang, Liaoliang |
| Abstract: | Education and corruption are negatively correlated at the cross-national level, but little is known about the causal relationship between the two. We combine newly-collected data on timing and locations of Vietnam’s national expansion of universities with detailed survey data on experiences of corruption from over 170, 000 respondents in 320 districts across 12 years. Using staggered difference-in-differences, we show that cohorts exposed to the university expansion are 78% more likely to have a university education. However, this increase neither translates into fewer individuals being affected by corruption nor increases the propensity to denounce corrupt officials. Instead, we find that education increases exposure to corruption at the individual level. The mechanism for this increase that is most consistent with our data is that education raises household income and higher income leads to more bribe payments. |
| Keywords: | Corruption; Education |
| JEL: | D73 H75 I23 I25 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21302 |
| By: | David Russell; Olivier J. Walther; Marie Trémolières |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between borderlands and political violence in Africa. Do African conflicts relocate or expand across borders? Using spatiotemporal data on conflict events from 1997 to 2024 alongside the innovative OECD/SWAC Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi), the paper suggests that borderlands experience more conflict than non-borderlands. Approximately half of all violent events occur within 100 km of a border. In Africa, political violence also tends to decrease very rapidly with distance from borders. The proportion of violent events recorded in borderlands varies over time and mirrors the cycles of violence that affect specific regions. This share was very high in the early 2000s due to the wars in the Gulf of Guinea and the Great Lakes region. It then declined for less than a decade before increasing substantially in the 2010s. Finally, the paper demonstrates that when conflicts diffuse across borders, they tend to occupy a greater spatial extent rather than simply moving from one side of the border to the other. These findings suggest that more policy efforts should be devoted to monitor the circulation of armed groups across West African borders. |
| Keywords: | Africa, borderlands, borders, conflict diffusion, political violence, terrorism |
| JEL: | D74 D85 F51 H56 N97 O55 |
| Date: | 2026–07–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:swacaa:51-en |
| By: | Maria Marino (Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics, UB, Spain.); Xavier Ramos (Department of Applied Economics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; IZA and EQUALITAS.); Riccardo Turati (Department of Applied Economics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; IZA and RFBerlin.) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between intergenerational social mobility, migration aspirations, and participation in political demonstrations. Using individual-level data from the Latinobarómetro between 2002 and 2023, we show that individuals experiencing negative intergenerational educational mobility are more likely to express a desire to migrate and to participate into peaceful protests, whereas those with positive mobility exhibit the opposite pattern. Our analysis further suggests that the decision to migrate and to protest may be shaped by a common underlying decision process. Finally, we find that confidence in political institutions and positive economic expectations substantially mitigate expressions of social discontent in the form of migration aspirations and protest participation. Overall, the results indicate that unequal opportunities across generations are an important determinant of both migration intentions and political engagement. |
| Keywords: | Social Mobility, Protest, Migration. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea2605 |
| By: | Pedro Salas Rojo (CUNEF University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the extent, nature and persistence of unfair inequality in the Asia Pacific region, building on a rich literature on the measurement of inequality of opportunity (IOp). As part of a project to build a global database of IOp, the paper uses microdata from 39 nationally representative household surveys to present IOp estimates for 14 countries that account for about three-quarters of the region’s population. We use consistent data protocols to ensure a high degree of cross-country comparability of IOp estimates. A distinguishing feature of the exercise is the use of machine learning methods to construct IOp estimates, which efficiently balances the risks of potential under- or over-fitting. The results show that, on average, nearly two-fifths of income or consumption inequality across the Asia-Pacific region represents inequality of opportunity attributable to inherited circumstances, though with wide variation across countries, ranging from about a quarter to over half. The cross-country variation in IOp is consistent with a Great Gatsby curve for the Asia-Pacific. A decomposition analysis assesses the relative contributions of different circumstances to IOp. |
| Keywords: | inequality of opportunity, economic mobility, Asia-Pacific, machine learning |
| JEL: | D31 D63 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2026-696 |
| By: | Alejandra Villegas (Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico); Heidi J. Smith (Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico) |
| Abstract: | Who pays bribes, and what does that reveal about gendered encounters with the state? Using seven waves of Mexico's National Survey on Government Quality and Impact (2011-2023), this article shows that petty corruption is not experienced evenly across citizens. Women are about 57 percent less likely than men to report paying a bribe in public procedures, while university-educated respondents are about 37 percent more likely. We test whether these patterns are explained by a supply-access-sanction mechanism linking women's education, women's presence in elected municipal office, and state fiscal capacity. Municipal female political access does not reduce reported bribery exposure overall, does not robustly moderate the gender gap, and is not activated by state fiscal capacity. The null survives logit, threshold, and quadratic specifications. Larger municipalities show higher exposure, but scale does not activate the representational mechanism. Petty bribery exposure appears driven less by women's descriptive representation than by gendered, unequal patterns of contact with the administrative state. |
| JEL: | D73 J16 I24 H83 O54 |
| Date: | 2026–07–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smx:wpaper:2026009 |
| By: | Badola, Shivani (Institute for Studies in Industrial Development); Mukherjee, Sacchidananda (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy) |
| Abstract: | Credit constraints often hinder investment in unincorporated enterprises, limiting innovation and overall performance, including reduced productivity and output, and slower growth. In this paper, we assess credit constraints on unincorporated enterprises using NSSO’s unit-level data from the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Enterprises 2022-23. Identifying the factors and determinants of credit constraints is crucial for informing policy recommendations. Based on sources of outstanding loans and survey responses, we classify enterprises into three categories: fully constrained, partially constrained, and not constrained. We find that manufacturing enterprises face more credit constraints than those engaged in trading and services. Furthermore, the study indicates that female entrepreneurs and those belonging to SC/ST or OBC castes face comparatively greater credit constraints than others. Other factors, such as region (rural vs. urban), size (annual turnover and asset value), GST registration status, price-cost margin, etc., are strong determinants of credit constraints or access to credit. |
| Keywords: | Unincorporated Enterprises ; Credit Constraints ; Manufacturing ; Multinomial logit model ; India |
| JEL: | C35 E51 G20 L60 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:npf:wpaper:26/449 |
| By: | Amin, Mohammad; Rodriguez Cuniolo, Eugenia Aurora |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of informal competition—defined as competition faced by formal firms from informal enterprises—on the firm-provided worker training among formal manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises. Using a representative dataset of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries, a sizable negative impact is found. A one-standard-deviation increase in informal competition reduces the probability that a firm offers training to its workers by 8.7 to 12.9 percentage points, relative to the sample mean of firms that offer training of approximately 25 percent. Comparable declines are observed in the share of workers receiving training. To address potential endogeneity, the paper employs several complementary strategies. First, an instrumental-variables strategy leverages variation in the number of children aged 0–4 and 5–9 years per working-age woman to generate exogenous shifts in informal competition. Second, heterogeneity is examined through tests derived from the “legalist” view of informality, which predicts bigger adverse effects of informal competition in environments characterized by a weaker rule of law and more stringent business regulations. Third, information about firms in other world regions is used to construct out-of-sample predictions of informal competition at the sector level. The findings sugge st that informal competition is a substantial constraint on the training investments of formal firms, underscoring the need for policy responses that mitigate its adverse consequences. |
| Date: | 2026–06–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11420 |
| By: | Andrews, Kathryn Gilman; Dal Ri, Fabiano; Gatti, Roberta V.; Lemos, Renata Freitas; Macis, Mario; Nakhone, Lydia |
| Abstract: | This paper measures and analyzes management practices in the Kenyan health care sector, drawing on a nationally representative survey and linked administrative data. The paper adapts the World Management Survey to measure management quality in primary health care facilities and hospitals, surveying 429 primary health care facilities and 73 hospitals. Primary health care facilities are the primary point of contact for most patients, providing treatment for common infectious diseases and chronic conditions, as well as services related to maternal and child health. Management quality is low on average, and the distribution is highly compressed. The analysis uses administrative data to test the association between the management quality and performance of primary health care facilities, measured by outpatient attendance, during a period of disruption that included the COVID-19 pandemic and a public health workers' strike. Overall attendance fell during this period. Private facilities experienced a smaller decline than public facilities, consistent with substitution during the strike. Within the private sector, better-managed facilities showed greater resilience, driven primarily by operations management. These results underscore the role of management quality in strengthening facility-level resilience and the complementarity of public and private sectors in absorbing healthcare shocks. |
| Date: | 2026–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11369 |
| By: | Julien Albertini (Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Etienne, emlyon business school, GATE, 69007, Lyon, France); Tony Berthonneau (Le Mans Université, GAINS-TEPP; Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Etienne, emlyon business school, GATE, 69007, Lyon, France); Anthony Terriau (Le Mans Université, GAINS-TEPP) |
| Abstract: | We study the interplay between informality, health, and education in South Africa. Using data from the National Income Dynamics Study, we document large disparities in health and labor market outcomes over the life cycle. We develop and estimate a life-cycle search-and-matching model with endogenous education and a dual labor market. We show that informal employment and poor health reinforce each other, generating a persistent poverty and poor-health trap. Policy experiments show that the optimal reform combines tertiary education subsidies, a broader tax base, and a lower average tax burden on earnings, increasing employment, welfare, and health while preserving fiscal balance. |
| Keywords: | Informality, Health, Education, Human Capital, Search and Matching |
| JEL: | I14 J24 J46 J48 J64 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:2607 |